Coram

We had a wonderful time at our last Adoption Activity Day of Year, with a winter wonderland themed event. We all enjoyed some festive treats and the children had a lot of fun, especially during the snowball fight! We would like to thank Big Yellow Self Storage for their continued support and we look forward to more wonderful events in 2025! ❄️

Christmas Opening Hours 🎄 Please note our offices will be closed from 5pm on 23 December 2024 and will reopen at 9am on 2 January 2025. For urgent media queries please see our press office out-of-hours contact details here: coram.org.uk/press-office/

We’re excited to let you know that our annual celebration of Wear Your SCARF Day, is just around the corner on February 7 2025!🧣🎉 It’s the perfect time to show off your favourite scarf and join us in supporting children’s mental wellbeing, while celebrating the values of SCARF - Safety, Caring, Achievement, Resilience and Friendship. Stay tuned for more details on our Wear Your SCARF Day competition and exciting prize that we’ll be announcing soon! Learn more and get involved: https://bit.ly/3VBpAOF #WearYourScarfDay #ChildrensMentalHealthWeek #WeAreCoram

With 2,600 children currently waiting to be adopted across England, of whom 1,230 have been waiting more than 18 months*, there is an urgent need for more prospective adoptive parents to come forward to provide permanent, loving homes for these children. Coram CEO, Dr Carol Homden CBE said: “Big Adoption Day gives us an important opportunity to come together across the sector with the shared purpose of finding more loving families for the growing numbers of children waiting. “We celebrate all the amazing families who have embraced the life-changing and rewarding journey of adoption. We hope Big Adoption Day will inspire others to take their first step and join one of the events taking place across the country where they can find out how we can support them throughout the adoption process and beyond.” To find out more about #BigAdoptionDay 2025, visit https://lnkd.in/daupxSZZ #BetterChancesForChildren #WeAreCoram #Adoption

Do you work with care-experienced young people aged 15-25 in London? We’re looking for individuals who may have an interest in spoken word and film to take part in the Inner Worlds, Everyday Objects project – an incredible creative opportunity to work with a professional filmmaker and create their own poetic short film. Over 6 weeks, participants will: 🔴 Write a spoken word piece and shoot an accompanying film 🔴 Respond to the work of Paul Yusuf, who used everyday objects like masks, barcodes, and clothing to document his care experience in the 1960s and 70s 🔴 Explore the people, places and things that represent them best, using these as inspiration for their creative output The final films will feature in the No Colours for my Coat exhibition at Coram in April 2025. The first workshop takes place on Tuesday 14 January (5.30-8pm) at Coram Campus, London. Travel expenses reimbursed and food provided. If you know any young people who would benefit from this experience, please share this opportunity with them! More information and sign-ups here: https://lnkd.in/eq4K2Sgm This project is co-produced by Kinder Shores. #CreativeOpportunities #FilmmakingProject #SpokenWord #CareExperienced #YouthWork #CreativeYouthProgrammes

Leave a message of goodwill for care leavers this Christmas ⭐   Each year, our supporters are invited to send us messages of goodwill for the young people we work with, via baubles which are added to the Christmas tree at Coram campus.   This year we’d like to extend this to our lovely LinkedIn network!   Please use the comments section on this post to leave supportive messages from you, or your company, for young people leaving care around Christmas time. We will write these up as baubles to be added to our tree next year.   For the thousands of young people leaving care each year, turning 18 means stepping into the world alone. The shocking truth is that more than 1 in 10 care leavers aged 18-20 will experience homelessness.   Coram works tirelessly to help young care leavers. With our helpline and support from our advocates, they can receive the help they need to ensure a safe place to live and other tools to enter adult life successfully.   Thank you for supporting us this Christmas ❤️   Featured bauble reads: May your festive season be filled with the love and light you deserve. The world is lucky to have you. All our love xx #charity #childrenscharity #uk #christmas #wearecoram

Today, our Meta-synthesis and meta-analysis of evidence on child marriage in South Asia report has launched, undertaken for UNICEF Regional Office for South Asia and written by Amelia Smith, Kara Apland, Freya Allery and Ramyah Harrichandiran. Access the report, executive summary and annexes here: https://lnkd.in/e8M7W7JJ

Coram's Christmas appeal 'Stand by Their Side' has been chosen as one of the Top 10 Christmas charity appeal films for 2024. Our Christmas appeal raises awareness of the difficulties young people face when leaving care at 18, entering adulthood alone. It also highlights the unacceptable truth that more than one in ten care leavers aged 18 to 20 will experience homelessness. 12,000 young people are set to leave care in the coming year. This Christmas, help us to stand by their side. Support our appeal here: https://lnkd.in/e53UvSp3 With thanks to Fundraising UK Ltd for including our campaign in their Top 10. Thanks also to Squirrels & Bears for their pro bono support in creating Coram's Christmas appeal film. #charity #fundraising #uk

We are delighted to announce that Voices 2025 is now open for entries! 🎤 Voices is the only national creative writing competition for children in care and young care leavers. It provides a unique platform for them to showcase their creativity, celebrate their talents and shine a light on what it means to be care-experienced. Since it was launched in 2015, Voices has celebrated the creativity of thousands of children and young people from across the UK. 2025 marks Coram Voice’s 50th Anniversary, and we have chosen the theme ‘My Voice’ to place the voices of children and young people at the heart of our milestone year. Our 24 shortlisted writers (plus two guests each) will be invited to our awards ceremony which will take place in London in late May. They will also have the chance to win a book voucher, and each category winner will scoop Love to Shop vouchers worth £25, £50 or £100. We can’t wait to read lots of poems, raps, stories and more - this year we are also encouraging submissions for songs! 🎶 We are also looking for artistic creations for the front cover of our Voices 2025 official publication. Anyone aged 4-25 with care experience can enter, and the winner (plus a guest) will be invited to our awards ceremony and awarded a £50 voucher. It will need to fit with this year’s theme, ‘My Voice’. 🎨 👉 Please share this opportunity with your network - we want to ensure that as many care-experienced young people and professionals who work with them as possible are aware of it and have the resources they need. Find out more and read winning entries from previous years at coramvoice.org.uk/voices Closing date for entries: Sunday 23 March 2025 #Voices25 #ChildrenInCare #CareLeavers #CareSystem #CareExperience #YouthVoice #CreativeWritingCompetition

Statement from Coram CEO Dr Carol Homden CBE: “The murder of Sara Sharif represents yet another in a long line of tragedies that have marked our national consciousness, where children have suffered appalling violence at the hands of those supposed to love and care for them, and the safeguards put in place by society around them have failed to prevent harm. “Serious case reviews often feature examples of missed opportunities to protect children and there will be lessons to be learnt from this harrowing case. But there are immediate policy steps we can take to lessen the risk potentially faced by children at risk of violence and abuse. “The key ingredient in the safeguarding of children is that they are seen and heard, no matter where they are. Coram has called for a register of all home-schooled children as a minimum. More children in home schooling means more children out of sight of the authorities and heightens the risk that instances of harm and opportunities for vital support will be missed. “And a change to the law on smacking is long overdue. There is no legitimate argument to maintain lesser protection in law from assault for children than is afforded to every other citizen. We call on the government to take this forward as a matter of urgency – and there is no better opportunity than to do so in the imminent Children’s Wellbeing Bill.” #uk